The opening Friday evening address was by the Revd the Lord Leslie Griffiths, Superintendent
Minister, Wesley’s Chapel, London who being a South Walian was able to chart without any notes
not only his calling but also to powerfully highlight the problems for the Methodist Church
especially because for the past 40 years its membership has declined from 675,000 to
200,000.

He compared Methodist circuits to Anglican deaneries and after his time in Haiti he
knew the power of peasant peoples through what he called their survival schools. He asked,
‘What are we communicating to whom?’ but really, ‘We should be led by the Spirit rather than
by the Book.’ As a Labour life peer in the House of Lords he can convey a Christian message in
supporting his fellow peers and as to he can still be involved with Haiti. His final thought after
a lively Q&A session was that we have to share and trust in each other.